the Physics of Line Levels and accurate measuring

  • Thread starter Thread starter junplugged
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junplugged

junplugged

Taking the slow road
where can we find info on what line levels are electrically? Like what are the volatge ranges of a mic capsule, and electric guitar, other transducers, then the amplification in the mic body, guitar effects, other effects units, mixers, mixer and rack preamps, outs from pres down the line to outboard gear, clipping and headroom, and also I guess, what the levels are so we can know accurately if we are high enough at the end. And how we can determine if a piece of gear can handle, by the specs, on the input side, levels and what the output are of these levels.

also, how do we know if a compressor is responding the the entire bandwidth of the signal or is more sensitive to some part of it, like mid or low, etc.

I notice I'm wondering what's really going on here as I stack up a bunch of outboard gear on my master out from my DAW.

How do we know any of the meters on any of this gear is accurate?

If my preamp is showing clipping, but I don't hear any distortion, is it accurate? If my meter on digital gear is showing clipping, same question....also, sometimes I hear real distortion or digital clip crackle and nothing is near 0, or showing clipping then I have to start troubleshooting and isolate each piece in the chain to find the offensive gear. Is this normal or do I just have crap gear? I'd like to have more than my subjective ear to know a little more what's going on objectively.
 
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